Santa Barbara Channelkeeper Website: http://www.sbck.org
Santa Barbara Channelkeeper is a local non-profit organization whose mission is to protect and restore the Santa Barbara Channel and its watersheds through citizen action, education, field work and enforcement. Channelkeeper is a member of the international Waterkeeper Alliance, and like the other 171 Waterkeepers across the globe, we work on the water and in our local communities to monitor our waterways, restore aquatic ecosystems, advocate for clean water, enforce environmental laws, and educate and engage citizens in identifying and devising solutions to local water pollution problems.
Channelkeeper's efforts are focused on cleaning up the leading sources of pollution that threaten the health of our local beaches, waterways and wetlands, including storm water and urban runoff, sewage, agricultural operations, offshore oil drilling, and large municipal and industrial dischargers.
Channelkeeper has developed a strong base of support in the community and has achieved many victories for clean water. They have compelled some of the area’s worst polluters to clean up, involved hundreds of volunteers in our programs, convinced regulatory agencies and public officials to strengthen the policies that protect our local waterways, and educated thousands of students and citizens through hands-on activities in classrooms, in the field, and through a variety of media and public outreach initiatives.
Some of Channelkeeper’s new initiatives include playing a lead role in California's initiative to implement the Marine Life Protection Act, which the legislature enacted in 1999 mandating the creation of a network of marine protected areas along the entire California coast. This process presents a unique opportunity for Channelkeeper and other ocean stakeholders to help shape marine conservation strategies along the South Coast, strategies that will serve to protect the Santa Barbara Channel's unique marine treasures forever. Channelkeeper has been monitoring and restoring eelgrass meadows in the Channel for nearly six years. They are the only non-profit organization on the South Coast monitoring and restoring this critical ecosystem, which provides essential habitat for many economically important species such as lobster, crab and several species of fish. To help inform the State's Marine Life Protection Act initiative, Channelkeeper is working to fill important scientific data gaps by significantly expanding their eelgrass habitat monitoring and marine life surveys in the Channel.
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| Photo: Santa Barbara News Press |
Channelkeeper also recently launched a major new initiative to take on the most significant and daunting threat currently facing the Santa Barbara Channel - NorthernStar Natural Gas Co.'s proposal to put a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal at Platform Grace, just 10 miles offshore and very close to the border of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. Channelkeeper is hiring the very best experts to help them conduct a thorough and highly technical review of this "Clearwater Port" proposal to ensure that all environmental impacts are fully disclosed, assessed and mitigated, and that a full range of safer alternatives with fewer impacts are carefully considered. Channelkeeper is also raising awareness among local citizens and decision makers about the potential risks and impacts associated with this project to the marine species and human populations that live in and along the Channel. Channelkeeper’s ultimate goal in these and all its endeavors is to ensure that the creeks, beaches and watersheds along the Santa Barbara Channel are clean and healthy for generations to come. 
